Will Motorola Make A Photon II LTE?General

OK, so the first LTE phone on Sprint will be manufactured by Samsung. Since I will never get a Samsung again as long as I live I'm hoping that Motorola puts out an amazing Sprint Android LTE phone over the next year sometime.

I love my MoPho. I would be happy with a MoPho II LTE. Imagine it. A phone with the best antenna that can be offered by any manufacturer that works with LTE. A phone that is updated when there is any issue and the update actually remedies the issue.

I love the MoPho. My only requests on a MoPho II would be better camera (clarity, not necessarily upgrade in MP), LTE compatibility (although, I really wished they would do both WiMax and LTE, even though there are no plans to do that for phones - Even though they will have the LTE tri-mode hotspot CES 2012: Smartphones & Hotspots Announced This Week in Las Vegas), and ability to connect to the current MoPho car dock and Lapdock 100. Other than that, if the MoPho 2 isn't that much of an upgrade, I'm good using the MoPho for another year or 2 or until the quad-core phones come out.

I get this feeling that the Photon 2 will be a very nice upgrade, enough to compel many to upgrade and not wait out. It will probably be announced around June (even though the usual spy guys will find out about it weeks/months sooner).

Since I have a few lines, I may just get the Galaxy Note. Only for the stylus/notes ability, to hold me over. Although I am not a fan of Samsung phones, I just may try it. But my ideal phone would be the Photon 2 (depending what it has).

I'm very curious to see what ICS looks like with Moto's latest version of not-Blur over it. Given how much reviewers gush over native ICS, I really wish we had the choice of that on our phones without a) having to buy a Nexus, or b) having to root and rom. At any rate, my next phone choice will partly be influenced by whatever the stock UI experience is like.

Because of ICS and how it's built, I'd love to see devices staying the same size physically with a bigger screen and no boarder. I'm still getting a little used to the update that I received for my HTC Flyer that disables the soft buttons, but the concept behind it is fantastic.

Considering the Droid Razr and Razr Maxx were barely released recently, I wonder if this is the Photon 2?

And in thinking this over even more, I wouldn't even mind if they made the bottom portion raised (like the camera area), so they could incorporate the kickstand still! I'm not a huge fan of the raised styling, but if they were able to accomplish keeping the kickstand, I'd be completely fine with it (if that mean a thinner phone while still having a kickstand).

My only question at that point would be if Motorola will be bringing it to Sprint as well or just sticking with their limited number of Motorola phones, while keeping HTC/Samsung as the "flagship phone manufacturers" of choice.

I really wouldn't mind if Sprint sticks with that gameplan and has Motorola focused towards the business world, as long as whatever design they bring gets as much appeal and attention as all of Verizon Motorola Droid's. The only thing I've been missing on my Photon is the SGP dry-install screen protector. That was my favorite of all screen protectors I've ever used.

If they are going to release one, we won't hear anything about it until the summer.

I hope they'll bring one out with a Tegra Grey. A few OEMs are shying away from using Tegra on LTE devices since other SOC solutions with integrated LTE are cheaper right now. The Grey will use a Tegra 3 or 4 with integrated icera radios. The current Icera gear doesn't include CDMA so cross your fingers.

Good article that follows the theory that the next Photon will likely be more Atrix 3-like, than the the RAZR line...but a built in 3300mah battery (non-changable) without adding bulk to the phone actually sounds pretty dandy to me. Even though I've developed a habit of swapping batteries at the end of the day, I wouldn't mind getting RAZR Maxx battery length because that would last me more than an entire day for sure.

Its funny, but I wrote back in Jan that I am not a fan of Samsung phones (especially since 2005), but since Jan I've come to love the Galaxy Note playing with it and just hope that Sprint gets it this year. The Galaxy S3 looks like a killer, and reading up on the HTC EVO one, is making me drool.
The photon has been very good (although lately its been a bit laggy and reboots for no apparent reason) but overall I really can't complain about it. If Motorola comes out with the Photon 2 (since the current one is EOL in April) soon, then I will really have a hard time choosing.
As it stands right now,
on my first line I want the Note,
On my second line, its a toss up between the S3 and the EVO one, or the future Photon.

Its funny, but I wrote back in Jan that I am not a fan of Samsung phones (especially since 2005), but since Jan I've come to love the Galaxy Note playing with it and just hope that Sprint gets it this year. The Galaxy S3 looks like a killer, and reading up on the HTC EVO one, is making me drool.
The photon has been very good (although lately its been a bit laggy and reboots for no apparent reason) but overall I really can't complain about it. If Motorola comes out with the Photon 2 (since the current one is EOL in April) soon, then I will really have a hard time choosing.
As it stands right now,
on my first line I want the Note,
On my second line, its a toss up between the S3 and the EVO one, or the future Photon.

If the Note ends up getting to Sprint, I'll wait until I can buy it without having to get a contract (Like I should've done with the EVO View, instead of buying the Flyer, because it eventually sold elsewhere for $199 online without requiring a tablet plan).

hmmm...more leaks. The Razr and Razr Maxx just barely got released for Verizon. Maybe Sprint opted for the ICS version of the Razr in replacement of the Photon? No mention of that not being a possibility (although I still feel like whatever Sprint has will be their version of the Atrix 3).

I hope that the next photon will be a blend of the atrix 3 and the droid RAZR maxx. I like the styling, construction and battery of Razr maxx (the internals are a bit dated) and the internals of the atrix 3 (Tegra 3, 10 mp camera, more ram).

Its funny, but I wrote back in Jan that I am not a fan of Samsung phones (especially since 2005), but since Jan I've come to love the Galaxy Note playing with it and just hope that Sprint gets it this year. The Galaxy S3 looks like a killer, and reading up on the HTC EVO one, is making me drool.
The photon has been very good (although lately its been a bit laggy and reboots for no apparent reason) but overall I really can't complain about it. If Motorola comes out with the Photon 2 (since the current one is EOL in April) soon, then I will really have a hard time choosing.
As it stands right now,
on my first line I want the Note,
On my second line, its a toss up between the S3 and the EVO one, or the future Photon.

TS

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The Photon is EOL already? Sad. I knew Sprint never really pushed it like they should/could have, but to hit EOL only eight months after release speaks to the lack of adoption for this phone. Ah well.

I've been reading the various reviews of the HTC One X that hit the web this morning, and have been very impressed. Still not sold on the Nexus even if it is stock Android, and I feel my upgrade will likely come down to the Photon's successor vs. the Evo One.

And as pointed out in the article, say what you will of the Photon, it was the flagship device and for it to be EOL this month without any replacement announced is odd.

Now in terms of flagship, according to Phandroid and Sprint, the Nexus is the flagship, but to be honest, I consider it Google's flagship for which others can turn to as a benchmark for much better phones. Only thing going for it is pure android with no overlay of any kind. Sprint on the other hand offers it but there are quite a few others that blow the nexus out of the water and thus should be considered as the premier flagship device of the network.
The original EVO 4G did this. it created a buzz, was bigger, faster than anything before it, so much that till this day it can hold its own.
The Photon falls in the same category being the first world phone on Android sold by Sprint. The only problem with the device was that it wasn't marketed to its full potential.

Now we have the HTC EVO One, which from what I've been reading the reviews this morning, make the Nexus a joke. Certainly not one for the title of premier Sprint Flagship. The same can be said of the Galaxy Note, but I'll exclude it since its not on Sprint (yet).

Of course all this is subjective and only my opinion. Once at the event this Wednesday, I'll see first hand if it is indeed worthy of the title of Flagship.

But going back to the topic at hand, Motorola in my opinion has failed on so many levels, that it's not even funny. The Atrix 2 was out no less than 6 months after the 1st one. Where is the Photon 2? Its almost a year. Would it being placed on EOL jeopardize it getting Ice Cream Sandwich? Where is the promise of an unlocked bootloader? So many questions, so little answers and most definitely so little time.

My theory is, the EVO One is going to be the new "flagship" phone for Sprint, just from Sprint's loyalty towards HTC and Samsung. That said, I would be very surprised if Motorola and Sprint discontinued offering an Android superphone, even if the Photon is already on the EOL, as of yesterday. I wouldn't be surprised if Sprint were to mirror the same phones offered on Verizon, except re-branded different names. That means all of the rumored phones, including form factor, will also be offered on Sprint. Only thing preventing that from happening is if Verizon has an "exclusivity" clause in their contract with Motorola. I wouldn't say that Motorola has necessarily "failed," because Verizon has great marketing campaigns for all of their "Droid" line Motorola phones, but as far as ATT and Sprint are concerned, I think they take a back seat to the provider that first gained great success with Android via the original Droid.

I am really, really hoping that Motorola puts out a good quality follow-up to the Photon, even if the name and form factor goes away. If history follows suit, we'll hear about the Motorola offering from Sprint in late April/early May (just like the Photon). Since there's so much hype behind the HTC EVO One, especially with the event on Wednesday, I doubt Sprint goes out of their way to market the next offering from Motorola (unless Google asks, which is very well possible, now that the merger has been finalized).

Everything seems to be lining up exactly as it did last year. Let's just hope that we're all in a dilemma between the EVO One, Motorola, and SG3...Having to debate the choices between the three (3) will keep the manufacturers from taking a step back in quality of phones that they release.

Everything seems to be lining up exactly as it did last year. Let's just hope that we're all in a dilemma between the EVO One, Motorola, and SG3...Having to debate the choices between the three (3) will keep the manufacturers from taking a step back in quality of phones that they release.

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That would be a great dilemma to have. It does seem Samsung has managed to kick the worst of their quality problems with the GN and Note, so I may actually consider the SG3, depending on how it looks. I love the call quality and radios on my Photon and an updated version would be sweet, but I do kind of feel like the Photon is the red-headed stepchild of Sprint's premier line-up.

That would be a great dilemma to have. It does seem Samsung has managed to kick the worst of their quality problems with the GN and Note, so I may actually consider the SG3, depending on how it looks. I love the call quality and radios on my Photon and an updated version would be sweet, but I do kind of feel like the Photon is the red-headed stepchild of Sprint's premier line-up.

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I think the SGS II has helped them a lot as well. And from what I've heard, the support has been much better than past phones. Then again, I don't think the US SGS II's have received their update yet, so I'm still in a "wait and see" mode, until all of the superphones have received their ICS updates (Photon as early as July). The Photon definitely is, but I hope that doesn't prevent them from either continuing on with the line or upgrading to something even better.